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BY SHARON COOLIDGE
| ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
September 22, 2006
One of Hamilton County’s youngest
convicted killers is headed back to an Ohio Juvenile prison for at
least five months after running away from an unlocked local
detention facility because he was frustrated with the criminal
justice system.
While Hamilton County Juvenile
Court Judge Karla Grady today ordered a minimum term of five months,
the Ohio Department of Corrections can hold the man until he is 21.
His 19th birthday is Thursday.
A three-year juvenile prison
sentence was suspended at sentencing on a voluntary manslaughter
charge providing the teenager comply with rules at the Hillcrest
Training School, a juvenile prison.
By running away, he violated that
promise, meaning the sentence could be imposed.
He has already served two years and seven months, leaving five
months left on the minimum term.
The teen admitted today he ran away, pleading guilty to a charge of
violating a court-ordered placement.
A conviction on that charge paved the way for the suspended sentence
to be imposed.
The teenager was convicted at age 13 of killing his 8-year-old
cousin, Takeya Bryant.
The teenager was baby-sitting four younger cousins at their
Northside home in August 2001 when a fight between Takeya and her
11-year-old brother broke out.
In trying to break up the fight, the teenager said he may have hit
the girl several times.
In 2003, a judge transferred him from a juvenile prison to Hillcrest
Training School.
At the time the boy was warned that any violation of the placement
could mean he’d be sent back to the Department of Youth Services.
The judge said he likely would be out in six or seven months.
Instead, he was still there last September when he turned 18, the
latest he expected to be released.
But Hillcrest officials, who can keep a person until they turn 21,
decided he wasn’t ready for release for reasons not disclosed.
In early July, the teen just walked away. Police caught him July 31.
Grady told the teenager: “Kids your age are impulsive, but you have
to be able to control impulsiveness. You’re getting older, you’re
18, you have to be able to think about the consequences.”
The teenager pledged to follow the rules.
“I know I can do this,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a long
time.”
E-mail
scoolidge@enquirer.com
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